


Dreaming of Me

by notcrypticbutcoy



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angels and Demons, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Heaven and Hell, M/M, Malec, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 04:05:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14072529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcrypticbutcoy/pseuds/notcrypticbutcoy
Summary: Alec couldn’t breathe the first time he met the elusive Magnus Bane, Crown Prince of Edom...As punishment for his insubordination, Alec is sent down to the depths of Edom to negotiate the safe return of a human from Edom to Heaven.It should be a straightforward mission. But nobody bargains for the impact Magnus and Alec have on each other.Or: in which Idris is definitely not heaven and Edom is definitely not hell, Shadowhunters are angels and Downworlders are demons (except not really) and Magnus and Alec look behind the stereotypes.





	Dreaming of Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ninwrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninwrites/gifts).



> This fic is for the absolutely amazing, wonderful, beautiful [Malteser24](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malteser24/pseuds/Malteser24) This woman is genuinely one of the loveliest, sweetest human beings I have ever had the pleasure of encountering.
> 
> Babe, happy birthday! I hope your day is as bright as Stephanie Bennett’s sunshine smile. I also really really hope you enjoy this, although I owe you a massive apology because life has absolutely kicked me in the arse so this is part 1 of 2... But enjoy, and part 2 to come! 
> 
> {Title from Tee Shirt by Birdy}

Alec couldn’t breathe the first time he met the elusive Magnus Bane, Crown Prince of Edom.

A shiver ran down his spine, a whisper of wind, a breath he couldn’t quite feel brushed down his neck, and he turned, eyes flickering across the space behind him.

He’d been to Edom once, many years ago, taken by his mother to visit the realm that angels were taught to fear and despise in equal measure. He remembered the towering stone buildings and the wide open plains of lush green land, deadly in its beauty. He remembered the heat, the overpowering scorch of the not-sunlight that permeated the air and made him sweat beneath the weight of his wings and the uncomfortable cloth of his clothes.

He remembered the creatures that had risen up off the deceptively beautiful pastures, terrifying and awful and disfigured. Roaring, screeching, shooting fire and smoke and poison at Alec and his mother as they waited for their demonic counterparts to invite them inside Edom’s central castle.

He remembered his mother assuring him that she would never make him come back.

Twenty years later, he couldn’t say he’d missed the place.

He turned back round to face the empty room he’d been escorted to upon arrival, back straight and wings held in a perfect curve, hands clasped loosely behind him. He was determined not to be intimidated by Edom.

This was his punishment. For what he’d done. For what his elders had realised. This was his retribution. He would face it with strength, with resilience, and he would not let Magnus Bane get the better of him.

That was the plan, anyway.

“Well, well, well,” a voice purred from behind him, making Alec flinch and whip round.

His eyes darted around across smooth stone and the long roll of carpet that lead from the door to the long meeting table that took up the majority of the room. Nothing greeted him. Nothing but empty space.

Someone was playing tricks on him. He’d been warned.

“Hello, darling.”

Reflexively, Alec took a stumbling half-step back as a man materialised in front of him. Blinking yellow cat eyes appeared first, the rest of him floating in like smoke until a figure formed, tall and broad with long, sleek black wings extending out from his shoulder blades.

It took Alec a moment to take him in, eyes wide and heart hammering in his chest. The man was dressed in black and red, leather and floating silk and shimmering jewellery draped across him. His shirt dipped low, down to his naval, and his eyes were lined with dark kohl, hair swept up high.

Something about him seemed ethereal. Untouchable. He held himself like something of the divine. And he was exceptionally beautiful.

Objectively, of course.

The man tilted his chin up, surveying Alec with a curious intensity, and he hummed under his breath.

“Magnus Bane,” the man said, offering Alec a smirk that curled from one corner of his mouth. “Although I’m quite sure you already knew that.”

“Alec Lightwood.”

Magnus raised his eyebrows. “A Lightwood. How disappointing. The last angel I saw in this hall was Luke Garroway. I don’t suppose you’ll be tumbling down that particular rabbit hole.”

Magnus flashed him a grin and flicked his fingers to pull out a chair with a wispy strand of blue magic. He sat, sprawling out in the chair like he owned the place. Which he did, Alec supposed. He ruled over Edom. Had since his father had been cast out by the rest of the leaders for corruption.

And, how ironic Heaven had thought that was. Demons tossing out their leader for corruption.

“No,” Alec said. “I’m not planning on committing any atrocities.”

Magnus barked out a laugh. “Atrocities? My darling, Luke was cast out of Heaven and tossed down here for what I would generally refer to as common courtesy.”

Alec cast his eyes skyward in what he hoped looked like irritation. It wouldn’t do to be distracted by the way the Prince of Hell’s necklaces cast light onto his bronze skin.

“Betrayal is not courtesy,” Alec said. “Feeding the enemy information—”

“The enemy?” Magnus smiled lazily at him, appearing amused rather than offended by Alec’s poor choice of words. “Calling me your enemy is not a particularly wonderful place to begin negotiations, now is it?”

Alec pressed his lips together. “I didn’t mean it like that. There’s nothing to negotiate. Maureen Brown committed nothing in her life to sentence her to an eternal afterlife in hell. You’ve broken the Accords in keeping her here. I’ve been sent to escort her back to Heaven, where she belongs.”

“Oh there’s everything to talk about,” Magnus said, flicking his fingers as he gazed at Alec with a startling intensity. “Maureen didn’t like Heaven. So she prayed to be allowed into Edom. And...” Magnus spread his hands wide. “I obliged. I’m considerate like that. Unlike the Clave.”

Alec bristled. “No human would rather spend an eternity in Edom.”

Magnus shrugged. “Not if they’ve spent their life reading the Bible, no. If they were smart enough to see that all their funny little human religions were lovely stories but rather a load of crap, they’re often more open-minded. Besides, darling, Edom has changed rather significantly since my father ruled.”

“You still have creatures of evil. You’re still cursed.”

“What?” Magnus let out a laugh of sheer bewilderment. “What rubbish do they teach you up in the clouds? Cursed? No. And my creatures aren’t evil. They’re rather sweet, most of them. Just because angels are too chicken to go near more than a dog—”

“We are warriors,” Alec said heatedly, firing up as he drew himself to his full height, glaring down at Magnus where he sat in his chair, spinning a ball of magic around on his fingertips carelessly.

“I was teasing you,” Magnus said. “But—”

He pushed his chair back and rose to his feet elegantly, unfolding his limbs with feline grace. It took him moments to cross the floor in long, purposeful strides, and, when he reached Alec, he tiled his head slightly to one side.

“I’m not negotiating about Maureen Brown until a Clave representative has stayed the course of a week to view what Edom has become in the last decade. You’re too full of misconceptions to be objective.”

With that, Magnus turned on his heel and strutted down, snapping his fingers as he left.

A map appeared in Alec’s hand, detailing the way back out.

***

The Clave was unimpressed by Magnus’ proposal.

“This is ludicrous,” the Clave said, upon Alec’s relaying of Magnus’ message. “View what Edom has become? We all know it’s a wasteland. What the hell is there to view?”

“Prince Bane is...unique,” Alec said carefully, standing before the assembled Clave Elders.

Imogen snorted. “I’m sure. Still using that pretentious title.”

_He doesn’t use it_ , Alec wanted to say, because he hadn’t heard a single utterance of it in his two hours in Edom. But he didn’t respond. He wasn’t supposed to be on Magnus’ side.

There wasn’t supposed to be some tiny, minute part of him that wanted to go back. That wanted to discover the truth about Edom.

There especially wasn’t supposed to be a part of him that wanted to discover the truth about Magnus himself.

“We’re not allowing this,” Imogen said, shaking her head vehemently. “It’s unacceptable.”

Alec was sent back to Edom that evening.

***

Landing in Edom sent a thrill through Alec.

Alec couldn’t deny the slight twinge of disappointment when he staggered through the portal and the Prince wasn’t a part of the party sent to greet him. Instead, he was met by armed guards and pinched, suspicious looks and tense, uncomfortable silences.

Alec desperately wanted to fly through the skies to Magnus’ castle. He wanted to see if the wind felt the same as it did in Heaven. It was cooler than the previous times he’d visited, and it was windy, but the skies were clear, and the creatures, hellhounds and minor demons and dragons and beings Alec couldn’t name, were following Alec’s progress from afar with curiosity.

He wanted to see the place. He wanted to find out all the things Magnus seemed to think he needed to know.

He wanted someone to change his mind. He wanted someone to validate the questions in his mind; to tell him that the waverings of his faith in Heaven weren’t unfounded; to show him that not everywhere was the same.

His life had been uprooted when the Clave had discovered his ruin. The foundations of his beliefs were shaken. He wanted to find somewhere new to build up from rock bottom.

Perhaps believing that Edom could offer him that had been rather too hopeful, he thought, as a guard showed him to a room and shut the door firmly with a strict instruction that he wasn’t to leave without escort.

He sighed. At least here, nobody knew what he’d done.

***

The sight of Magnus curled in the armchair in the corner of the bedroom was enough to give Alec a heart attack.

Magnus raised his eyebrows as Alec walked through from the bathroom to the bedroom, hair damp and the feathers of his wings untamed. He was dressed down from when Alec had last seen him. He’d lost the jacket and some of the jewellery, and his shirt reached his collarbones.

Alec wasn’t quite sure whether that was a blessing or a curse.

“Did we do something to offend you, darling?” Magnus asked, when Alec stopped several feet away, feeling a little lost.

Alec pulled a face. “Why? All I’ve done is what I was told to. Stay put unless I have an escort.”

Magnus hummed. “Yes, well, need’s must. I can’t have Clave personnel wandering around where they could come across sensitive documents. But you can ask for an escort and go wherever you like. More or less.”

“Oh.”

Magnus smiled. “Oh, indeed. No matter. I have two hours until my next meeting. Let me show you around.”

Magnus turned on his heel, not waiting for a response as he pushed open Alec’s bedroom door. When it became apparent that Alec hadn’t moved, he turned back and quirked an eyebrow at him in question.

“Well? Are you coming, or are you staying cooped up in here?”

Despite his slight misgivings, Alec went. There was something bizarrely irresistible about the Prince of Edom.

***

It became something of a routine.

Alec was given library privileges, Magnus telling the staff and other inhabitants of the castle to let Alec be, so long as he wasn’t snooping. He was, Magnus said, there for the _organic_ experience. Not the regimented military one.

Curled up on a deep windowsill in the library that overlooked the rolling hills outside, Alec took a moment to stare out across the land he’d heard so many tales about. It was supposed to be a burning wasteland. He remembered the stench of blood and sulphur and decaying flesh, when he’d been taken along with his mother, as a child.

Things had changed.

People had changed.

“I see you’ve found the best spot in the house,” said a smooth, rich voice.

Alec glanced up, strangely unsurprised to see Magnus leaning against the end of a bookcase. A half-smile had settled on his lips, and his head was tilted to one side in clear contemplation as he regarded Alec with those strange yellow cat eyes that should have made Alec shudder in fear, but didn’t.

“It’s different to what I remember,” Alec said. “Edom.”

Magnus arched an eyebrow. “You’ve been here before?”

“Yes. When I was a child. With my mother.”

“Ah.” Something dark flashed across Magnus’ face, his smile falling away. “The most recent Accords. Yes. I remember your mother. I don’t remember you.”

Alec shrugged, rolling his shoulders back. “Ditto.”

Magnus’ lips quirked. “Fancy a trip outside?”

Alec would have been a fool to decline such an offer. He rose off the windowsill, stretching up to his full height. Magnus flashed him a smile, and then led the way out of the library, darting along the corridor and through a small, well-concealed door that he waved open with a flick of his wrist.

“Don’t tell anyone I’ve let you in here,” Magnus told him, winking like some kind of rebellious teenager as he shut the door behind them. “Especially not Ragnor. He might kill me.”

Alec frowned. “Aren’t you in charge?”

“Well, yes,” Magnus said. “But I’ve also introduced Edom to the concept of democracy. Alicante might do with trying it, sometime. And Ragnor is both my right hand man and my best friend.”

Unable to find fault with that, Alec looked around the room. It was smaller than the other rooms he’d been shown into, with two long glass doors that opened out onto a balcony and a sleek mahogany desk situated before them. Papers were strewn across it, a fountain pen left uncapped atop a haphazard pile of books. A bookshelf stood proudly along one wall, and a tall set of shelves containing what looked like potion ingredients had been set against the other.

Alec raised his eyebrows as Magnus pushed open the double doors to the balcony. “Is this your office?”

“It is,” Magnus said, turning to look at him over his shoulder. “Which is why you can’t tell anyone I’ve let you in here. They’d lecture me for days about the dangers of trusting an angel near such important things.”

Alec followed Magnus out onto the balcony. It wasn’t cold, per se, but it was windy, and the chill bit at Alec’s skin, penetrating his clothing and making him shiver lightly.

“Then why have you let me in?”

Magnus shrugged. “I can’t preach trust and better relations and a dismantling of the stereotypes about Idris and Edom if I don’t lead by example. Trust is a choice. I’m choosing to trust you, because I think I can.”

“Why?” Alec asked, eyes flickering across to Magnus’ as they climbed onto the ledge of the balcony, both ready to tip over the edge and soar through the air. “I’ve given you no reason to.”

“Because Lightwoods don’t get sent down to Edom like this for no reason,” Magnus said softly, something generous, kind, compassionate in his eyes.

Alec knew he didn’t deserve it.

Muscles tightened in his jaw. He stared resolutely ahead, determined not to show an inch of emotion. He couldn’t afford that. He was here for diplomacy. He was here for his punishment. That was all.

Nothing else. There would be no confessions, no confiding, no generosity and certainly no friendship. No matter how much some part of him craved such things.

“Ready?” Magnus asked, apparently not offended by Alec’s silence.

Alec raised his eyes at the sound of a bird tweeting up above. He hadn’t realised there were birds in Edom. He’d thought all the birds were in Idris.

Perhaps there was rather a lot he didn’t know.

“Ready.”

And, together, they flew.

***

Dragons were terrifying creatures.

Alec had spent his entire life being told so, by his mother and by the Elders and by the stories in children’s books.

Magnus, of course, was determined to prove him wrong.

“We have hellhounds, too,” Magnus said as they glided through the air, a warm breeze ruffling the feathers of their wings. “They’re a little more snippy, but if you catch them in a good mood, they’re sweeter than labradors. Most of them.”

Alec snorted. “I’m sure.”

“Rude,” Magnus told him, but, when Alec looked over, there was a grin on his face. “You’re here to get rid of your misconceptions. Open your mind, darling.”

Alec flushed. “Fine.”

Magnus landed gracefully several metres away from a deep scarlet dragon. It was young, Alec presumed, and about half the size of those he’d seen on their flights, although still twice the size of him.

The dragon regarded Magnus with suspicious black eyes, following the prince with a narrowed gaze as he moved towards it, magic fizzing harmlessly at his fingers. Magnus stopped, one hand extended, and then, slowly, the dragon lowered its head and nudged Magnus’ open palm with its snout.

Magnus gave it a light pat, turning back to Alec with a smirk. “See? Friendly.”

“I’m not cuddling a dragon.”

“You are absolutely cuddling a dragon.”

Alec didn’t quite cuddle the dragon—but he got fairly close.

***

Remembering that he was in Edom on business came as a slap in the face.

After days of wandering around the castle and the grounds, his days broken by spontaneous visits from Magnus - and, occasionally, Ragnor, who was better company that Alec had expected - the cold douse of reality shocked Alec.

“The Clave can take Maureen Brown back to Idris on two conditions,” Magnus said, by way of announcing his presence one morning, the moment Alec ventured out of his bedroom.

Alec blinked, stopping in his tracks. Magnus was leaning against the railing at the top of the stairs, one hand pressed against the wall and the other drumming rhythmically against the metal of the bannister. He was fixing Alec with one of his calculating looks, as though trying to decipher an impossibly complex equation.

Attempting to force the sleep from his befuddled brain to make himself a little less monosyllabic, Alec said, “What conditions?”

“She agrees to go back of her own will, without being threatened,” Magnus said, “and the Clave agrees to renegotiate the Accords.”

Alec swallowed. He didn’t know what had changed, since Magnus had introduced him to a hellhound named Julia the previous day, but something had. The warmth had disappeared. Everything was frosty, considered, strategic, and decidedly lacking the friendliness they’d interacted with for the past week.

“I’ll present it to the Clave,” Alec said. “But they won’t go for it.”

Magnus arched an eyebrow. “You can’t negotiate with me?”

Alec tried not to wince. “No.”

_Not anymore._

“Very well.” Magnus straightened, drawing himself up to his full, imposing height and fixing Alec with an impenetrable stare that made Alec swallow and look away. “Someone will show you to a portal. Farewell, Alexander.”

And Magnus disappeared, much like he had that first day, in a swirling mist of blue.

***

The Clave called it preposterous.

They shouted for what felt like hours, hurling insults and spitting and spewing the same rhetoric Alec had heard for his entire life. They branded Magnus the same as Asmodeus, declared them equally guilty of all number of heinous sins, and used it as fodder for their argument to uphold the status quo.

And Alec wasn’t allowed to say a word in return. Such was his punishment.

Lydia Branwell was sent down to Edom to negotiate the safe return of Maureen Brown to Idris. At the announcement, Alec kept his gaze trained on the floor, strange, conflicting emotions that he didn’t really understand swirling and clashing in his chest.

As the inhabitants of the hall filed out, he felt the sympathetic gazes of his siblings following him. He wondered whether they knew something he didn’t.

***

The mundane world had never been Alec’s favourite place.

He found it confusing. It was too fast, too frantic, too many humans rushing around, glued to their phones with buds in their ears, connected in every way possible. It was too much. It was overpowering.

But he was getting used to it. It was better than Alicante. Humans didn’t whisper about him.

His posting to attempt to nudge a misguided man back onto a better path came with it the necessity of playing the part of a barista. Alec had learnt rather quickly that humans were rather like angels: some were awful, some were lovely, and some were completely insane.

Some were also astonishingly beautiful.

“Hello, darling.”

Alec’s gaze snapped up at the sound of that voice, and his eyes widened as he saw Edom’s prince leaning against the counter with a smirk curling at his lips, fully visible to every human bustling in and out of the shop.

Like Alec, he’d glamoured his wings away from the prying eyes of humans. But where Alec hadn’t bothered to cover the swirling black runes that covered his skin, as mundanes tended to write them off as tattoos, Magnus’ pupils were rounded, and the irises glamoured a liquid soft brown.

“What are you doing here?” Alec blurted out, getting a strange look from a human coworker. He didn’t care.

Magnus raised his eyebrows. “Ordering a coffee. I’ll have one vanilla latte and one black americano, please.”

Robotically, Alec tapped the items into the cash register. Magnus scanned a card and moved to the end without further comment.

“I’ve been given the wrong coffee,” Magnus said a moment later collecting his drinks, stopping in front of Alec’s station. “This is for an Alexander.”

An americano was set down in front of him. Alec stared at the coffee, and then stared up at Magnus, confusion clouding his expression. He didn’t understand what in the world was going on. Magnus Bane was not supposed to be here.

“I can’t,” Alec said. “I’m sorry.”

“Rubbish,” the gruff voice of the human manager said, coming up behind Alec and fixing him with a stern look. “Take your break now. I don’t want you back here for twenty minutes.”

They took a seat by the window in silence. Alec wrapped his hands around the permeating warmth of the cardboard coffee cup, watching Magnus with wary eyes. There was no reason for Edom’s leader to be taking a trip onto earth. Certainly, there was no reason for him to visit a disgraced angel going on a mission far, far below his expertise. Alec hated sounding arrogant, preferring to leave that job to his brother, but he’d been delegating those sorts of jobs for years.

“I think I owe you an apology,” Magnus said. He took a sip of his coffee, not breaking their gaze. “I turned cold before you left Edom. It was unkind of me. And unprofessional.”

Alec shrugged. “It’s fine.”

“No. You were a breath of fresh air. You were open to changing your mind about Edom. I hope you did change your mind, after some of the things I showed you. And I enjoyed your company. Perhaps a little more than I should have. Someone pointed it out to me. I got a little defensive.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Alec said. “I get it. I don’t get why you’re here.”

“To apologise to you. Officially, I was visiting some of the less savoury mundanes, but really, I wanted to find you and tell you I’m sorry. I don’t make a habit of treating my guests like that when they leave.”

Magnus was watching him with wide eyes, expression open and strangely gentle. It made something deep inside Alec’s chest clench, as though fingers were wrapping around his heartstrings and tugging on them.

“Really, it’s okay,” Alec said, holding his gaze. “I promise.”

Magnus titled his head to one side. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why is an intelligent, high-ranking person like you being sent down to do this kind of job?”

A wry smile spread across Alec’s face, and he glanced down at his coffee, twisting off the lid and then snapping it back on in mild irritation.

“Because I broke the rules. I interfered.”

That seemed to pique Magnus’ interest. He sat up straighter, brow furrowing lightly, and leant forwards. “Oh?”

“Idris is supposed to take in the good. The bad are supposed to be sent to Edom.” He looked up at Magnus. “I know you want to change that, I know you want to renegotiate and even things out, but...” He waved a hand; Magnus seemed to understand, gesturing Alec on with a nod. “People in Idris are supposed to be living in comparative paradise. But some of the individuals we’d allowed in were making it...less than.”

Magnus quirked an eyebrow. Alec sighed.

“We let in some bigots,” he clarified. “They were...well. Expressing their views. Passionately. Rudely. We’re supposed to let the mundanes live in their little bubbles of reality without interfering, but I couldn’t. So I interfered. I wanted to have them thrown down to Edom, but I knew that would never happen. So I...intimidated them in other ways.”

That wasn’t quite all of it, of course. That wasn’t the reason he cared. That wasn’t the reason he’d got into so much more trouble than Jace might have done. That wasn’t the reason he was being punished so heavily. Not entirely.

But it was more than he’d ever said before, to someone who didn’t already know.

As Alec spoke, Magnus’ lips curled up higher, eyes turning brighter and frown evening out until his skin was smooth. He let out a little laugh when Alec finished, and reached out across the table to cover Alec’s hand with his.

“Alexander, you should wear this punishment with pride. You did a good thing.”

And that—

Well. That made a strange, buried part of Alec glow.

***

The Clave descended into chaos at news of Lydia’s failure to successfully negotiate with Magnus Bane.

“We cannot bend to their wishes! Demons guard hell and angels guard heaven. That is how it has always been, and there is no reason to change! If Bane wants glory, he’ll have to find another way to do it!”

Imogen, of course, was on her feet, shouting and cursing louder than everyone else in the room, desperate for the Clave to hear exactly how awful she thought the leader of Edom was.

“If we allow Bane to dictate how we run Heaven, we might as well declare ourselves his servants,” she sneered, to roars of agreement from the assembled angels.

It made Alec’s blood boil.

He was supposed to be down there. He wasn’t supposed to be at the front, not yet, but in public meetings, in public debates, he was supposed to be down at the front. He wasn’t supposed to be a spectator. He was supposed to be allowed an opinion. He’d worked and fought and battled to have a political voice.

_You should wear this punishment with pride_ , Magnus’ voice whispered in his head, the words wrapping around him.

Alec stood.

“With all due respect, Elder Herondale,” Alec shouted, calling out above the rest of the angels clamouring to be heard, “you’ve never met Magnus Bane! I have! So perhaps the rest of you should take your advice from a more informed source!”

Heads swivelled from down below and all around him, his fellow angels turning to stare at him in shock for speaking out of turn. Alec didn’t care. He was supposed to be allowed to speak in those meetings. He’d stood up for mundanes suffering under their care, in their land. He wasn’t going to suffer his punishment for that.

Imogen recovered first, eyes narrowing. “Mr Lightwood—”

“Let me try,” he said, the words coming from a place he didn’t want to pay too much attention to. He didn’t want to think about what it meant. “Let me try negotiating with Magnus Bane. He trusts me.”

Imogen thought it would be his downfall, and Jia thought it unwise, and the other Elders thought it a plan of sheer insanity, but they let him go anyway.

***

“Well hello there, darling.”

Alec whirled around at the sound of the voice; unbidden, a smile bloomed across his face at the sight of Magnus leaning against the doorway, hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers, shirt taut against his torso, a fitted jacket drawing Alec’s eyes involuntarily to the swells of his arms.

“Hi,” Alec said, eyes bright and smile wide.

Magnus was smiling too, something in his eyes that Alec dared to think might just have been fond. Not that that made any sense, really, because they’d only really spent hours in each other’s company.

Something about seeing Magnus again was just... _light_. Alec hadn’t realised that he’d missed Edom, or missed Magnus’ sharp quips and quick wit and amusing snide comments, but then, standing in Edom’s enormous library with the sun streaming through the window behind him, browsing the shelves with Magnus watching him...

Well. He had missed it. He’d missed it all.

“I know we’re supposed to be doing this big negotiation,” Magnus said, his smile softening into something more neutral, but no less warm, “but I feel bad for not greeting you when you arrived. What do you say to dinner?”

Alec blinked. “With you?”

“Mmhm. Not a formal thing, just us. And not business.”

There was something under those words, something implied, something being hinted at between the lines and hidden by innuendo, and Alec had to force himself not to search for it. It wouldn’t do him any good.

“That sounds nice,” he said instead, offering Magnus a small smile.

Magnus grinned at him, reaching out to grab his hand. “Follow me.”

It dragged a surprised laugh out of Alec, and, when he clasped Magnus’ hand back, palms pressed together and fingers crossing, everything in him turned warm.

***

 

**Author's Note:**

> My apologies again for this not being done - think of it as an extended birthday present. Stretching out the celebration of your awesomeness ;) 
> 
> If anyone fancies it, you can [come talk to me on Tumblr!](http://notcrypticbutcoy.tumblr.com)
> 
> Part 2 coming soon!
> 
> Much love,  
> Lu <3


End file.
